264 Myanmar nationals including troops take shelter in Bangladesh: BGB

Bangladesh

264 Myanmar nationals including troops take shelter in Bangladesh: BGBDhaka summons Myanmar ambassador, another mortar shell lands on Bangladesh border

Daily Sun Report, DhakaTuesday, 06 February, 2024,03:44PM

Photo: Collected

As many as 264 Myanmar nationals, including army personnel, Border Guard Police (BGP) members, and civilians, fled Bangladesh on Tuesday and sought shelter amid the ongoing conflict between the ethnic Arakan Army and Myanmar troops along the international border.

The Myanmar troops with arms and ammunition have been disarmed by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel and taken to a safe place, according to the BGB headquarters.  

With the fresh arrival, the number of Myanmar nationals, which included mostly the BGP members, has risen to 264. Earlier, 115 BGP personnel fled to Bangladesh in groups and took shelter.

All of them are in Cox’s Bazar BGB battalion custody, the border force said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday summoned Myanmar Ambassador to Bangladesh, U Aung Kyaw Moe, and strongly protested the incidents along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Miah Md Mainul Kabir, director general (Myanmar wing) at the ministry, handed over the protest note to the Myanmar ambassador during a meeting at the state guesthouse Padma.

Aung Kyaw was summoned just a day after two people – a Bangladeshi woman and a Rohingya man – were killed and a child was injured as a mortar shell from the conflict-ridden region of Myanmar hit a house at Jolpaitoli under Ghumdhum union in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, another mortar shell fired from Myanmar landed in the yard of a house owned by one Syed Nur at Madhyampara under Ghumdhum in the morning.

No casualty took place in the incident, said Anwar Hossain, ward-5 member of Ghumdhum union parishad.

The government has kept the BGB members on a high alert to prevent any infiltration through the Myanmar border during the conflict.

BGB Cox's Bazar Region Commander Brig Gen Morshed Alam said additional BGB members have been deployed in the border areas to closely monitor the situation.

On Monday, Law Minister Anisul Huq told the House that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the armed forces and the BGB to exercise patience regarding the war-like situation in Myanmar.